Investigators not to attach rights council's conclusions to Magnitsky case

MOSCOW, January 24 (Itar-Tass) — The investigator refused to attach the report by the presidential human rights and civil society development council to the so-called Magnitsky case, an official that the Hermitage Capital Management fund, where Sergei Magnitsky had worked, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

"Interior Ministry investigator for the Central Federal District Boris Kibis refused to attach the conclusions of the independent probe conducted by the presidential human rights council to the case," the fund said in a statement.

The fund also said the investigator had sent a telegram to the Moscow Bar demanding that it appoint a lawyer to representing the Magnitsky family's interests. The relatives do not know this lawyer. Magnitsky's mother rejected the servicers of lawyer Yelena Khokhobai, whom she "does not know and does not trust." "The Magnitsky family has made a contract with lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov," the fund's officials aid.

Magnitsky's relatives protested the investigator’s actions at the Prosecutor General's Office and the investigation department of the Interior Ministry.

Sergei Magnitsky, 37, died in an IT ward of the hospital on the premises of the Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison on November 16, 2009, seven days after he was officially charged with organizing and abetting grand tax evasion. He had spent 11 months in custody.

Forensic experts said Magnitsky had died of a combination of several illnesses, and untimely medical assistance as his health sharply deteriorated.

Dmitry Kratov, who was deputy head of Butyrka's infirmary in 2009, was charged with negligence that resulted in a person's death. Larisa Litvinova, a Butyrka doctor and laboratory assistant, was charged with death by negligence due to improper performance of her professional duties.

The case against Magnitsky was dropped because of his death on November 30, 2009. Investigators believe the auditor had invented a tax evasion scheme for Hermitage Capital Management. The investigation was later reopened at the instruction of the Prosecutor General's Office, based on a Constitutional Court's ruling.

The Investigative Committee said it needed consent of all close relatives of Magnitsky, in order to stop criminal prosecution.

According to the Interior Ministry, it ascertained the identities of all the culprits in the 5.4-billion-rouble theft case, Sergei Magnitsky included.